R.U.R.

Perhaps like many young people, I was first exposed to Karel Čapek through an episode of Futurama. In the Futurama episode inspired by R.U.R. the robots are not synthetic humans manufactured in a factory, but the episode embedded the name Čapek into my mind. Finally, several years later, and on a whim, I read the short play which introduced the word robot to science fiction. The story seems to borrow elements from Island of Dr. Moreau (island setting where questionable experiments are conducted by a dangerous scientist) to offer a warning of the dangers of progress, industrialization, and exploitation. Written in 1920, the recent memory of World War I and the Russian Revolution surely influenced this, as the belief in boundless progress and further technological advances led to horrific wars, social unrest, and loss of life. 

Intriguingly, a Soviet film adaptation of Čapek's play exists, which presumably highlights the theme of alienation and exploitation of the proletariat. Helena's husband, Domin, does seem to have genuinely good intentions through the use of robots to alleviate the labor burdens on the working-class, but R.U.R., like the bourgeoisie, had also planned to turn robots against each other through the creation of "national robots." Thus, the manufacturer of robots was plotting to exploit the labor of beings and, through the exploitation of race and nationality, turn them against each other to prevent rebellion. By the end of the play, the robot revolution is at the doors of the R.U.R. factory, and the extinction of humanity is all but ensured. Yet, in the epilogue, despite never learning the formula to manufacture additional robots, two robots have managed to develop emotion, particularly love. Thus, in spite of humanity's misguided belief in progress and elimination of the need for humans' labor, there is a glimmer of hope among the robots for life to continue (Adam and Eve, or Helena and Primus).

Of course, R.U.R. is not quite great writing. It's interesting as a testament of its era of science fiction. It possesses an assured position in the annals of science fiction for the word robot. But subsequent writers have done a much better job with the themes of robot revolt or human-like sentient synthetic beings. Philip K. Dick, for example, did a better job at it. One cannot forget the plethora of science fiction films and TV that became hits in recent memory, either. Still, one owes a great debt to Karel Čapek for his use of the idea and the term robot, a great gift to the world of science fiction.